Obstruction as Power: Rethinking Britain's Caucasus Occupation 1918–20

This article draws on French and British archival sources to rethink the history of Britain's 1918--1920 occupation of the Caucasus. The extant historiography casts London as eager to reinvigorate the region's oil exports in order to buoy its own supplies, but this article suggests that various elements within and close to the British administration sought to obstruct oil exports. Preventing Caucasus oil from reaching global markets seems to have helped parts of the British administration reach their aims during negotiations with the French government and Royal Dutch Shell. It also improved the viability of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company by denying valuable oil supplies to rival firms. Acknowledging the British oil interests that steered state policies during this period allows a richer story to unfold, one that demonstrates how imperial power in the wake of the Great War could be brought to serve the aims of, and even adopt the methods of, transnational oil companies operating in an emerging global fuel market.     

The Myth of the Flogging Parson: Samuel Marsden and Severity of Punishment in the Age of Reform

In 1817, Governor Macquarie alleged that Samuel Marsden was an especially severe magistrate, a claim widely repeated in subsequent histories. And yet, if measured against other magistrates in the Macquarie era, Marsden sentenced convicts to a flogging less frequently and ordered typical numbers of lashes. The myth of Marsden as the flogging parson developed in the writing of Marsden's political enemies, grounded in his popular reputation as a brute and a hypocrite. In a context of growing humanitarian and criminological opposition to corporal punishment, Marsden's incongruous responsibilities to preach and punish convicts became a scandalous anachronism.     

Capacity Design of Coupled RC Walls

Capacity design aims to ensure controlled ductile response of structures when subjected to earthquakes. This article investigates the performance of existing capacity design equations for reinforced concrete coupled walls and then proposes a new simplified capacity design method based on state-of-the-art knowledge. The new method is verified through a case study in which a set of 15 coupled walls are subject to nonlinear time-history analyses. The article includes examination of the maximum shear force in individual walls in relation to the total maximum shear force in the coupled wall system, and subsequently provides recommendations for design.     

Open-Air “Adena” Paired-Post Ritual Features in the Middle Ohio Valley: A New Interpretation

Circular paired-post structures have been recognized as a quintessential trait of the “Adena” concept. Although once thought restricted to ritual contexts beneath burial mounds, work over the last 30 years has identified several open-air structures in contexts apart from burial mounds or ditches. Uncluttered by overlapping features, open-air examples present a unique opportunity to document the initial roles played by these features. Currently, no unequivocal evidence for mortuary processing has been found directly associated with open-air paired-post structures. This fact calls into question the prevailing belief that most of these features were used to process, or prepare, the dead. Instead, a more reasonable interpretation is that these structures were involved in rituals minimally related to, or entirely devoid of, mortuary activity.     

The Palace of Westminster: Another Window of Opportunity?

The Palace of Westminster is in need of urgent, substantial repairs. This provides a ‘window of opportunity’ for change. This essay traces the restoration and transformation (or lack of) that the Palace of Westminster has seen in the last half a century, before assessing its current state, and considering whether parliament is fit for purpose. It provides a ‘long‐view’ understanding of previous missed ‘windows of opportunity’. The essay focuses on drawing insights from history in order to add a depth of understanding to the contemporary issue. An understanding of the preceding renewal and restoration projects enables us, potentially, to avoid some of the problems that have been previously experienced, and finally seize this opportunity to build a parliament which is fit for purpose.     

Survey and excavations at Solomon’s Pools,Palestine: 2018 preliminary report

This article provides an initial archaeological and historical overview of the Lower Pool at the Pools of Solomon south of Bethlehem, Palestine.